Also known as: preserve · preserves · preserved · preserving · spoliation · evidence preservation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The maintenance or keeping intact of a legal right, interest, document, or item of property.
Preston Pratt transfers his mortgaged property to the senior lender via deed in lieu of foreclosure. The agreement expressly states that a junior lien held by another creditor remains in place. The junior lien survives the transfer because the deed in lieu operates as a voluntary satisfaction of only the senior debt.
Priscilla Parks sues in federal court for breach of contract seeking damages above twenty dollars. The district court strikes her jury demand. On appeal the circuit court reverses, holding that the Seventh Amendment right must be preserved and the case returned for jury trial.
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Pierre Poulin produces documents in discovery that include privileged emails. Upon realizing the error he notifies opposing counsel. Counsel must promptly return or sequester the material and may not use it until the privilege claim is resolved.
Pedro Pacheco closes a client matter and moves his practice. He retains the client trust account ledgers for the required period after termination. The records remain available for any later audit or dispute.
Philip Powell conveys land creating an estate tail in two grantees. Because the jurisdiction permits fee simple conditional or tail estates, the conveyance creates concurrent ownership as tenants in common rather than requiring a joint tenancy form.
Pilar Pena holds over after lease termination. The landlord obtains a statutory eviction action that provides prompt judicial relief. The landlord may not resort to self-help eviction because the controlling law supplies an adequate judicial alternative.
The duty attaches when a party knows or reasonably should know that evidence is relevant to pending or reasonably anticipated litigation. Once triggered, routine destruction policies must be suspended and a litigation hold implemented.
A letter triggers the duty only if it reasonably indicates that litigation is imminent and identifies the materials to be preserved. An equivocal letter that merely raises a dispute without threatening suit may be insufficient.
Once a fact is tried by a jury in a common-law suit exceeding twenty dollars, the finding may not be re-examined in federal court except according to common-law rules such as a motion for new trial.
Client funds must be held in a separate trust account and complete records must be maintained and preserved for five years after the representation ends.
Self-help is unavailable if the controlling law supplies a speedy judicial remedy for recovery of possession, unless that law expressly preserves the self-help right.
…and votes of the Senate and House which have been approved and signed, cause them to be published and distributed, carefully preserve the originals and cause them to be recorded. It provides for the seal of the United States and makes it his duty to keep that seal and to make out, record and affix the seal to all civil…